Platform	GameCube
Available	Nov. 18 (U.S.)
Price	$49.99
Genre	First-Person Adventure
Developer	Retro Studios
Publisher	Nintendo

Note: These impressions were originally posted (in slightly altered form) in a thread in the General Forum, so some of you may have already seen them. We decided to put them up on the Impressions page so that those who don't regularly check the forums could check them out as well. Now that Metroid Prime has finally been released in Japan, debate over the game's quality has once again sprung to life amongst the (very opinionated) Tokyopia crew. Feel free to join in on the fun over in the forums!

First off, let me say that I think everyone who I've talked to about Metroid Prime understands that I have a tremendous amount of respect for this game, and I really appreciate how much work went into it. I also understand that there must be some levels of greatness that I just can't see or appreciate, because so many people are calling it 'game of the year' and 'best game I've ever played,' including two friends of mine whose gaming opinions I really respect: Mark MacDonald (of EGM) and Gregg Tavares (whose own Metroid Prime impressions can be found here).

My two biggest beefs with Prime are the extremely limited AI and the (IMHO) extremely faulted play control. First, the AI: I realize the development team set out to re-create the original Metroid games in 3D, and they tried to stay as close to as many of the original patterns as possible. On one hand I respect this idea (just bring Metroid play control into a beautiful 3D world), but on the other hand, there were reasons the AI back then was SO simple, and it wasn't necessarily a design decision. AI didn't exist back then -- it was just enemies following set paths and patterns. Times have changed, and I really believe the team could have kept the "spirit" of these slimy, slithering little creatures, while at the same time giving them a sense of self-preservation and more unpredictable behavior. You know, something to add to the challenge... something more to think about and to have to react to. As it is, the enemies don't feel "alive" at all. Everything seems so forced and on tracks, like a ride at Disneyland or something. Yes, it's beautiful and cool as hell, but it's also linear and scripted -- like having a conversation with one of the pirates from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride. So much potential, none of it realized.

When it comes to fighting Space Pirates, it's just not fun at all. Talk about stress. This is where the control really jabs me in the eye and then squirts it with lemon juice. The idea of having to lock-on just to be able to attack and defend yourself, especially when there are multiple enemies... it gets to be too much. And the look function is totally limited -- you can't move while you look; you can't look up or down quickly... it takes five seconds just to look straight up! Time it! And having to hold down a (deep) button just to strafe or look around? Your hands cramp up! It's like in GTA3, when multiple guys are storming you -- it's very, very difficult to have the reaction time needed to shoot freely while also running to protect yourself. So basically, you sit there as missile fodder until you've had the patience to lock on to every one of them and basically out-endure their attacks while blasting them non-stop.

And the Space Pirate AI is basically one tiny step above the flood drones from Halo. Rush and attack, repeat. Once in a while, briefly stop moving, then rush and attack, repeat. Again, they feel so scripted and forced, and having to lock on to two or three of them rushing around in their jetpacks while they hammer you relentlessly is ridiculous. You're stuck thinking, "look at me, I'm standing here in the open like an ass because I can't move while I spend three seconds trying to look up to get a lock-on to one of you while the other two HAMMER me." God, I start to fume just thinking about how not fun that is.

Another element sorely missing from this world is a more plentiful display of real-world physics. The reason Halo feels so meaty and real is because of the heavy use of realistic physics. When you roll up into the Morph Ball and things change, it looks and feels so real and so well done. Objects, enemies, boxes and so on should have used the same displays of weight or results from force, rather than just blowing up when blasted. One time a Space Pirate that I killed crash-landed right next to me and it freaked me out -- that was cool, and more of that would have been nice.

The argument is that you "need" to have access to the four visors immediately. BS, I say. Halo has different visors (the different levels of zoom) and they each take a moment to access -- it should be no different here. If it were multi-player and real-time was of the essence, then okay, maybe. But it's a one-player game! If you were to hold down the L button and then tap one of the four directions while the game momentarily paused (or even slowed way down -- that would be really cool), that would leave the other stick free for decent control. Give us the option, Retro, please.

It's not as if the lock-on is inherently a bad idea. If used optionally, it would work well (especially against some of the bigger enemies). But I don't think you should automatically have perfect aim just for being locked-on; it should be less forgiving than it is now and only aim you in the enemy's general direction, where you still have to aim and lead a bit more than you do now. I really liked dancing around the two-legged turtle guys in Phendrana Drifts, jumping over their heads and blasting them in the back with lock-on assistance. I just think it would have been better to tone it down, in general.

Overall I think if Retro were going to stick with this kind of play control, the game really should have been third-person. The lock-on would have been more forgivable and it would have felt more like a platformer. I think it could have been a bigger success doing so, actually. As the guy in this article said, you alienate first-person shooter fans with the jacked-up play control and heavy expectations from enemy AI, and yet platformer players have a hard time adjusting to the first-person view and not being able to see the edges of platforms when you're jumping.

People say "you can't possibly compare it to Halo," and basically that's true; it's not nearly as good. But it could be, and that's what kills me. I am well aware that it's a "first-person adventure" game, but unfortunately you still spend a great deal of time in first-person mode, shooting things. C'mon, guys. Yeah, it has much more of a focus on exploring and adventuring, and I think those are both really neat elements to this game, but still. If they were to tighten up these loose ends it really could have been "Game of the Year."

Can you imagine how truly AMAZING this game would have been had they combined great, responsive play control, all those neat enemies, great AI and the use of the different battle visors? Imagine sneaking up on a group of Space Pirates working on something, unable to see you because you're using your Thermal Visor from behind a rock. You toss a grenade (or a bomb, or whatever) around the corner, distracting them while you use your Jump Boots to then leap way up from behind the rock, blasting them all while in the air because you didn't need to waste time locking on to them one at a time. It could have been gaming nirvana!!

Atmospherically, this game is basically unmatched. Hidden temples down long, abandoned tunnels, sunlight streaming through the roof while creepy ambient music trickles over the rocks as some unknown, slimy creature scuttles away... beautiful, truly a work of art in that sense. Unmatched. If Retro is up to the challenge of taking Metroid Prime 2 to the next level and were to actually implement some of the ideas I've mentioned (and I'm not alone -- there are quite a few people I've talked to who feel the same way), it could easily be one of the greatest games ever made.

Here's hoping...

- Jake Kazdal
[ Email Jake ]